The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex ended 146 points higher at 28,301 on Thursday, while the National Stock Exchange Nifty closed 53 points higher at 8,778. A spike in information technology, healthcare and realty trading boosted the numbers on the Indian bourses.

Sun Pharma, Infosys, Maruti, Tata Motors and Tata Steel led the day’s trading while ITC, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, ICICI Bank and L&T were at the bottom of the Sensex list. IT stocks rose after TCS said that it would buy back shares to boost investors’ confidence. Tata Consultancy Services stocks went up 2.7% during early morning trade, the highest since September 2016.

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The Cabinet’s approval of the proposed merger of the State Bank of India and five subsidiaries led to a positive performance of SBI stocks which rose up to 3%.

The Indian rupee closed at 67.04 against the dollar compared to 66.92 the previous day.

Asian stocks touched 19-month highs. World stocks touched a record high while the dollar weakened.